I read that it is statistically more dangerous to fly on a private jet than a commercial one.
Accidents generally go up as you move down the scale of regularly scheduled airlines -> charter -> private with professional crew -> private flying.
There is zero chance 100 people could fly private airplanes everyday for their whole life and only one dies. I suppose if you look at 100 skilled pilots flying private aircraft for 50 years daily.. still would be a lot worse
1. P-51 engine swallowed a valve and failed completely (the P-51 flies like a rock when the engine isn't turning) but fortunately he was over the airfield at the time
2. a total failure of an F-86 engine (F-86 is a decent glider and he was able to glide in on the airfield)
3. his P-51 rear fuselage crumpled after a turn. The mechanic told him he was amazed it didn't come off completely
4. flew into clear air turbulence that was so violent the wings were bent and were scrapped
My dad flew F-180s in the Korean War. It was the first operational US jet fighter. It had straight wings (not swept) and had a powerful engine.
He related to me that if you exceeded a certain speed, the airplane would suddenly "pitch up" and fold the wings back. You had to be very careful not to overspeed, which (of course) was very difficult to do in a diving attack. (He said he kept one eye on the target, one eye on the altitude, and one eye on the airspeed.) Anyhow, mission one of his buddies had a Mig on his tail and could not shake it. He decided that he'd deliberately induce the pitch up, and hope that would get him out of the jam. He did, pitched up, the Mig couldn't follow it, and miraculously the wings stayed on.
He carefully flew it back to base. The wings were bent up, and the airplane was scrapped.